IBM pulls X ads as Elon Musk endorses white pride

www.theverge.com IBM pulls X ads as Elon Musk endorses white pride

He continues to criticize the Anti-Defamation League, too.

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The company that sold automation to Hitler: "This guy is a step too far"
- The art of debate and discussion today is watered down to, "...but but that other thing is evil too!"
  Can't talk about Uyghurs genocide because European settlers killed natives 500 years ago. IBM and Musk can both be bad. Same as time changes things and people.
  Stop distracting from Musk's wrongdoings. What happened 90 years ago was 90 years ago. We can't change that. What we can do is influence change today. Thanks to IBM for not allowing their money to fuel Musk's machines.
  
  I uhhh think it was just a joke...
- I did not know that about IBM's history... 😬
  
  Probably shouldn't look up any car companies then...
  
  I'm familiar with those bits of history already, but wasn't aware of IBM. My dad worked at IBM for 30+ years, so they've always been relevant to my family (they have a dogshit corporate culture, not that that's surprising)
  
  apparently they were even manufacturing M1 carbines and BARs for the US
- I'm no apologist but literally the country of Germany let that dude do all that shit but we've kinda let the whole country off the hook for that at this point, seeing how it was a really long time ago and the people involved aren't in charge anymore.
  Have you seen their offices from the 1970s? It's like wall to wall Eames chairs. IBM deserves another chance.
  
  No, look, you're not wrong. I'm not saying modern IBM is responsible for the holocaust or something like that. But:
  It's important that people know the context of this company. Even if the executive team has followed the eightfold path and achieved enlightenment, what the context informs you about is why this should matter to IBM, why they might be responding to Musk.
  Corollary to #1, an awful lot of companies took the hint over a year ago and fled Twitter then, so I think we can fairly ask, why does a company with this history not react immediately and in the strongest terms to any hint of white supremacist bullshit. If they want to show us they've changed and should be completely let off the hook, there should be people working there whose entire job is "make sure IBM is never implicated with Nazis again". God knows they can afford it.
  The whole interaction gives us something to think about; less about IBM and more about Musk, as in, how low has he sunk that even IBM is finally reacting?
- Look everyone, a funny observation. Or is this an open invitation for debate?
  Please debate me. PLEASE RESPOND.
- I think you'll find none of the same executives at IBM in 2023 that were alive in the 30s/40s.

384 comments